The Small Passion is a series of thirty-seven prints that relates the Christian history of man’s salvation, beginning with the Temptation of Adam and Eve and ending with the Last Judgment. It was published as a set in 1511 and bound with explanatory text in Latin written by the Benedictine monk Chelidonius of Nuremberg. Although text was included within the book, the images were the primary focus and were meant to guide prayer and devotion, especially for a largely illiterate audience. For this series, Albrecht Dürer utilized a woodblock print, a relief technique in which the reverse of the image is carved into wood and the uncarved surface carries the ink for printing. Wood was a more economic material than the metal used for engraving; therefore, woodblock prints were more affordable and could reach a wider audience.

Excerpt from

Laura Sevelis, DMA wall text, 2015

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  View the print The Fall of Man from the Small Passion series by Albrecht Dürer.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  View the print The Resurrection from the Small Passion series by Albrecht Dürer.

• Museum of Fine Arts Boston
  View the print Crucifixion from the Small Passion series by Albrecht Dürer.

• The British Museum, London
  Check out this woodblock used to print the twenty-ninth plate in the Small Passion series.

• Emory University, Pitts Theology Library
  View five prints from the Small Passion series by Albrecht Dürer.